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Published Author and Parent Angie Cruz  P. ’26 Speaks at George School for Hispanic Heritage Month

On Friday, October 11, 2024 published author and current GS parent Angie Cruz spoke at a special assembly about her published novel, Dominicana, in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. A guided writing workshop followed in MDA Library during lunch. 

The special assembly was hosted by LASO (Latin American Student Organization), and provided the George School community with the opportunity to learn about Angie’s experience as a Latina writer. She is an English Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and holds a BA in English from SUNY Binghamton and a MFA in Creative Writing from New York University. 

Angie was interviewed on stage by her son, Daniel Cruz ’26, and students Allie Betancourt ’26 and Bailey Chichwak ’28 about how she became a writer, what her writing process looks like, what inspires her to write, and her experience breaking into the industry as a Latina writer.

In the case of Dominicana, Angie was moved by family photographs that she longed to know more about. Inspired by her mother’s own journey of moving to New York City and getting married in her youth, Angie felt compelled to share a story of the life and times of Dominicans—a prevalent population of around 8-10%—in New York City in the 1960s.

To Angie, writing about underrepresented voices matters, especially when those voices are of communities that have many important stories to share. “I didn’t always know I was a writer,” Angie shared, “but I knew I was a storyteller.”  

Dominicana, while inspired by her mother’s life, is a work of fiction that is grounded in universal struggles: family, expectations, sacrifices, and what one is willing to do for their own happiness.

It is also a response to the silence and lack of documentation she was able to find about Dominican communities in 1960s New York City. “I didn’t see this story out there,” Angie commented, so she wrote it.

While the protagonist of Dominicana, Ana, shares resemblances to Angie’s mother’s story, it is Ana’s own story and a thoughtful and heartfelt look at the Dominican immigrant experience during this time. 

During assembly, Angie spoke to the common adage that is often used of “write what you know” and encouraged the George School community to do the opposite: write what you don’t know, research, be willing to learn from it, and share it with others. 

“Access to emotion is a gift,” said Angie, “...and so is reading. [It is] an embodied experience.” Angie’s commitment to community and the written word is evident, and she followed her special assembly with a guided writing workshop in MDA Library during lunch which was co-sponsored by LASO, MDA Library, and the student art and literary magazine Argo

During the writing workshop, Angie guided attendees through a writing exercise that she once did herself with Cuban-American playwright María Irene Fornés that focuses on character-building and encourages writers to think about a character’s history as well as speculate about their future. “Get to know your character like you get to know a person,” Angie instructed. 

During the writing workshop, attendees were asked to write about their character in different scenarios, but also during different ages of their lives to consider alternate perspectives. Some found it challenging to write about the future, while others found it liberating if they knew where they wanted their characters to go. The ultimate goal for the exercise: find the connection between the past, the present, and the future for one’s character(s). 

Angie encouraged attendees not to overthink during the exercise, but instead to write freely. “Go with [intuition],” she advised. “Be prepared to revisit and revise—a crucial part of writing—later in the process.” To emphasize the importance of revision, she shared an influential quote from writer George Saunders that has long resonated with her: “[Revision is] love in progress.” We are all learning, growing, and evolving, and so must our writing as well. 

When asked about what it was like to have his mother on campus as a guest speaker, Daniel commented, “It was great having my mom over at GS. At first it was funny in a way because I was interviewing my own mother in front of my school. But in the end, it went well and I was happy to have my mom at assembly and at the workshop. I was happy to see people interested in my mom’s work and in LASO.” 

Similarly, Angie mentioned the experience of allowing Daniel into her writing process during the day. “Listening to Daniel has been inspirational,” she shared, and quipped about the two of them bonding over clips from Batman and Joker films when talking about villain storylines.  

Ultimately, Angie reminded the George School community that writing is not something that has to be done alone. “Find community,” Angie urged, “and use your voice through storytelling.” 


For more information on Angie, you can visit her author website and be on the lookout for the upcoming film adaptations of her novels Dominicana and How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water.